publish several violent and odious laws." The nominative absolute in this sentence can be resolved into the following Grammatical equivalent: "While the two armies were thus employed, Cælius began to publish several violent and odious laws."

Note II-A Noun used in Direct Address is in the nomina. tive case; as, "O Judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts!" "John, come hither." This last example is equivalent to the vocative case in the Latin language.

Note III-A Nominative without its intended Verb sometimes occurs in a certain abrupt mode of writing; as, "These menhow I detest them!" The first words, being the subject of discourse, when uttered, awaken such strong feeling in the mind of the speaker, that he quits the trammels of a formal arrangement, and leaves the nominative without a verb. This mode of writing was formerly more common than it is now, as in the following stanza :

"They routed, drank, and merry made,

Till all his gold it waxed thin,
And then his friends they slunk away,

And left the unthrifty heir of Linne."

In expressions like the following there is a Pleonasm: "Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?" "Bad men they often honor virtue at the bottom of their heart." Superfluous nominatives should be avoided in common language.

Expressions like the following are not to be encouraged, though there are authorities in their favor: "It is really curious, the course which balls will sometimes take."

Note IV.-A Noun in the nominative without a verb is sometimes found in Exclamatory sentences: "But, oh their end, their dreadful end!"

"A steed! a steed of matchless speed,

A sword of metal keene!

All else to noble hearts is drosse,

All else on earth is meane."-MOTHERWELL.

Here the mind, for the moment, is so absorbed in the object that it simply utters the term, without making an assertion respecting it.

Note V.-Nouns used as Titles of Books, and Names of Places and of Persons, are very often in the nominative without a verb; as, "Chambers's Cyclopædia;" "the Astor House." These expressions are elliptical.

Note VI.-In Poetry, a Noun in the nominative without a verb may sometimes be found, chiefly in those cases where the omitted verb would express an Address or Answer; as,

"To whom thus Michael: Judge not what is best

By pleasure, though to nature seeming meet,
Created as thou art to nobler end."-MILTON.

Note VII.-A Noun in the nominative case without a verb is very frequently found in the Answer to a Question; as, "Who invented the electro-magnetic telegraph ?" "Morse" (invented it.) Here the ellipsis is supplied. "Who first drew lightning from the clouds?" "Franklin.”

COLLOCATION.

§ 482. The Subject-nominative generally precedes, the Predicate-nominative generally follows the verb, as above. To this rule there are exceptions:

1. In Interrogative, Exclamatory, and Imperative sentences, the Subject-nominative follows the verb; as, "How many apples have (Sub.) you?" "What (Pred.) beautiful apples those are!" "Give (Sub.) thou those apples."

2. When the subjunctive mode suppresses the conjunction if or though, the Subject-nominative follows the verb; as, “Were (Sub.) it true, I should rejoice."

3. When neither or nor is used for and not, the Subject-nominative follows the verb; as, "The eye that saw him shall see him no more, neither shall his (Sub.) place any more behold him." "This was his fear, nor was his (Sub.) apprehension groundless."

4. When a Neuter or a Passive verb is preceded by a preposition and its case, or by the adverbs here, hence, these, thence, now, then, hereafter, thus, the Subject-nominative follows the verb; as, "Here was the (Sub.) tomb," etc.

5. After such verbs as to say, to think, the Subject-nominative follows the verb; as, "Trim,' said my (Sub.) uncle Toby."

6. When the sentence begins with an emphatic adjective, the

Subject-nominative follows the verb; as, "Wonderful are thy (Sub.) works."

7. When the adverb there precedes the verb, the Subject-nominative follows the verb; as, "There was neither (Sub.) knocker nor (Sub.) bell-handle at the door where Oliver and his master stopped."

EXERCISES IN SYNTAX.

1. In these exercises a part of the examples have the letters C. S. affixed to them, to indicate Correct Syntax. This class of examples are intended to illustrate the corresponding rule or note, and impress it on the memory of the learner. The Teacher, after the example has been read, is expected to ask the Pupil to state the rule or note, and also its particular application to the example. Thus the rule is made to explain the syntax of the example, and the example to illustrate the meaning of the rule.

2. A part of the examples have the letters F. S. affixed to them, to indicate False Syntax. Examples of this class the learner is expected to correct, and to give the rule or note for the correction, as before.

3. A part of the examples have the sign of equality (=) affixed to them, to indicate Grammatical Equivalents, which the pupil is expected to give. The practice of finding grammat ical equivalents, if persevered in, will be of great value in giving the pupil command of language. See § 540.

4. It is also earnestly urged upon the Teacher that he should require the Pupils to select examples from other books under each rule and note. This will both test and increase their knowledge of the rule or note in its practical application.

EXERCISES UNDER RULE I.

NOMINATIVE CASE.

RULE I.-a. God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb. C. S. (In this example, God is the Subject of the verb tempers, and is in the nominative case.)

b. Truth is the daughter of Time. C. S. Here daughter is the Predicate of the verb is, and is in the nominative case

c. Penn, despairing of relief in Europe, bent the whole energy of his mind to accomplish the establishment of a free government in the New World.-BANCROFT. C. S.

d. Brutus was, from his youth up, a student of philosophy, and well versed in the systems of the Greeks. C. S.

e. Them are the books imported for the Astor Library. F. S.

f.

The nations not so bless'd as thee

Must, in their turn, to tyrants fall;

While thou shalt flourish great and free,

The dread and envy of them all.-THOMSON. F. S.

Note I.-a. At length, the Russians being masters of the field of battle, our troops retired, the uproar ceased, and a mournful silence ensued. C. S.

b. Shame being lost, all virtue is lost. C. S.

c. The atmosphere's being clear, and my sight good, I beheld

the ship in the far distance approaching. F. S.

d. Him being on deck, we gave three cheers to the good ship. F. S.

e. There being many other passages relative to the subject, he refuses to make a premature decision.

f.

=

Note II.-a. O Faithful Love, by poverty embraced!

Thy heart is fire, amid a wintry waste;

Thy joys are roses, born on Hecla's brow;

Thy home is Eden, warm amid the snow.-ELLIOTT. C. S

b. O full of all subtlety and mischief, thee child of the devil F. S.

Note III-a. My friends, do they now and then send a wish or a thought after me?-CowPER. C. S.

b. And the souls of thine enemies; them shall he sling as out of the middle of a sling. C. S.

Note IV.A sail! a sail! How speaks the telescope? C. S. Note V.-The Royal Exchange. The Duke of Wellington C. S.

Note VI.

Thus Satan; and him thus the Anarch old,
With faltering speech, and visage incomposed,
Answered.-MILTON. C. S.

Note VII.-a. Who invented the safety-lamp? Sir Humphrey Davy.

b. Who discovered America?

Columbus.

Here let the pupils bring forward examples which they have selected to illustrate the rule and notes.

§ 483. RULE II-A Noun used to limit another noun by denoting POSSESSION OF ORIGIN is put in the Possessive Case; as, Washington's prudence saved his country."

66

Temple was for generations the glory of Palestine."

"Solomon's

In the last example, Temple denotes any temple; Solomon's limits it to the particular one which Solomon built. So in the first example, the noun prudence is limited by the noun Washington's.

Note I. The limited Substantive is frequently omitted, that is, understood, when no mistake can arise; as, "Let us go to St. Paul's," that is, church. "Nor think a lover's are but fancied woes;" that is, a lover's woes. In these cases there is an ellipsis of the governing word. See figures of Syntax. In Latin, ad Dianæ ad ædem Dianæ.

Note II. When the thing possessed is the common property of two or more possessors, the sign of the possessive is suffixed only to the last noun; as, "John, Thomas, and James's house;" that is, a house of which the joint ownership is vested in these three persons.

Note III-But when the thing possessed is the individual and separate property of two or more possessors, the sign of the possessive is suffixed to each noun; as, "He has the surgeon's and the physician's opinion;" that is, he has the opinion of the surgeon, and the opinion of the physician, and these opinions may differ the one from the other.

"For thou art Freedom's now, and Fame's;

One of the few, the immortal names

That were not born to die."-HALLECK.

Note IV. The possessive case may sometimes be resolved. into the Objective with the preposition of; as, "Napoleon's army" may be changed into "the army of Napoleon." This